The achievements of the Dunedin Kindergarten Association were highlighted by Massey University researcher Dr Kerry Bethell in a public lecture last night.
Dr Bethell, who is a senior lecturer at the Massey College of Education, said 1200 children were this year attending the Dunedin association's 22 kindergartens, which employed more than 100 staff.
Association assets now totalled more than $3 million.
Founded in 1889, the Dunedin association is celebrating its 120th anniversary this year.
More than 130 people attended a University of Otago College of Education and Dunedin Kindergarten Association public lecture given by Dr Bethell at the Otago College of Education auditorium.
Dr Bethell's talk focused on "re-presenting Dunedin's kindergarten pioneers."
Her research showed that the early history of New Zealand kindergartens was more diverse than often had been previously realised.
Kindergarten education fostered children's imaginations, rather than simply emphasising the accumulation of facts.
A severe-looking photograph of one of the Dunedin educational pioneers, Rachel Reynolds, gave a misleading impression.
Dr Bethell traced close links between early advocacy for kindergartens and other attempts to improve education for young women, including by providing access to university study.
Links were also apparent with the women's suffrage movement.
Dunedin was home to a series of prominent and mutually supportive husband and wife couples who had jointly advocated the development of kindergartens and other reforms.
Sara Cohen, and her husband, journalist and newspaper editor Mark Cohen, had both advocated educational reform and women's suffrage.
Many men had made a positive contribution to the development of kindergartens and were often prepared to take relatively modest roles within the organisational structure.
However, some early newspaper reports failed to acknowledge the major contribution of women, with one naming the leading male participants at a public meeting, and adding that 40 "ladies" had also attended.
